The Ultimate Guide to Customer Engagement
There are five vital elements to master the customer engagement of your business. So, as you move towards a more personalized customer journey, keep these key points in mind.
Take a moment to consider how engaged your customers are. We’re able to reach millions of consumers at scale, but monetizing this attention is a step that many marketers find difficult.
As technology and consumer interaction evolves, marketers have to find smarter ways to cut through the masses and give consumers exactly what they want, when they want it. The question is, how exactly can attention from consumers advance into meaningful engagement that increases conversion rates and ROI? It’s time your business takes the proper steps towards successful customer engagement to stand out against competitors.
Consumers are bombarded with multiple opportunities to interact with a variety of companies every day. The main point to consider, is the way these consumers choose to interact with brands and retailers. When a customer decides to visit your website, checks out your social media, even visits your store in person, they’re already engaging with your brand whether they realize it or not. However, it’s the topic of choice that is creating new challenges in engagement to arise for marketers. According to eMarketer, engagement is now the top business objective for 59% of North American marketing professionals. This objective is even overtaking the focus of increasing conversion rates and growing revenue.
There is a tremendous value in meaningful customer engagement. As technology continues to transform to better-fit the needs of shoppers, consumers are feeling more entitled, expecting nothing less than personal and meaningful customer engagement. 84% of consumers claim that being treated like a person and not a number is very important to winning their business. Brands and retailers that are able to connect and foster personal relationships are now favored by the average consumer. When a business constructs a well thought out engagement strategy, it creates a major impact on customer loyalty.
This brings us to bridging the engagement gap. It’s time to ask yourself, what do consumers expect when they engage with your company? Success in customer engagement is all about making interactions across channels more humized and personal.
There are five vital elements to master the customer engagement of your business. So, as you move towards a more personalized customer journey, keep these key points in mind:
1. Be human, authentic and conversational
Although the way we communicate with consumers is constantly changing, shoppers still need to be treated like individuals. The heart of successful a successful engagement strategy is conversation. Generic, static messages are now viewed as impersonal and irrelevant. Consumers don’t have the time or patience to rifle through hundreds or thousands of products. Brands and retailers need to be proactive and offer a hand to consumers overwhelmed by an overabundance of choice.
By enabling human-friendly engagement, 1 on 1 conversation and individual decision support, you can come off as an industry expert while remaining relatable to the consumer.
2. Be understanding and always learning
Every single time a consumer visits your website or social media channels, they’re providing valuable data points for your business. By analyzing such data, businesses can unveil analytics providing clarity into customer intent and preferences. Basic demographic data is no longer enough. Retailers need to take that data and combine it with behavioral and explicit data to truly understand the wants and needs of their customers. Understanding your analytics is the key factor to creating an enjoyable and meaningful customer experience.
3. Be relevant and personal
One of the most critical times in the customer journey is the “I want” moment. The moment a consumer decides they want to make a certain purchase. This is the start of the discovery process, where engagement is key. Your business plays the most important role in this step because it’s where shoppers need the most relevant, personalized assistance. Failing to engage when customers need support can make or break the success of your business. Aim to be your customer’s trusty shopping advisor, a reliable source guiding them to the perfect products.
4. Be easy-going
Today’s consumer would rather switch to a competitor with a more simplified shopping journey, rather than dealing with customers support. A study by Forrester revealed that 72% of customers preferred self-service to picking up the phone. Now is the time to implement a self-service engagement strategy if you want to effectively meet the high expectations of consumers. When customers are given a chance to take the reins and be their own hero, they feel empowered. Self-service is a no-brainer, it’s an effortless time-saver.
5. Be Bold
55% of younger respondents wanted to explore new ways to interact, like chatbots and digital assistants. It’s time to leverage technology to scale digital engagement. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are becoming more important than ever. They enable your business to scale engagement exponentially without increasing cost. Make the optimization of engagement experiences more economical and deliver the right interactions at the right moment and in the right way.